Stop the Tape! Stop the Tape!

As the American label Friendly Fire reissues the previous Europe-only output of Swedish indie-popsters David & the Citizens, the band signed with the Bad Taste label to release their third full-length album, Stop the Tape Stop the Tape The effect for American audiences is somewhat confusing, as several years' worth of albums are unloaded on the market at once, but Stop the Tape Stop the Tape documents a subtle but important shift in David & the Citizens' sound. Where earlier albums like Until the Sadness Is Gone used the sprightly Swedish indie pop sound of the '90s as their musical starting point, there's a dark, moody edge to Stop the Tape Stop the Tape, both in the uniformly pessimistic lyrics and the slightly harder arrangements. Songs like the PJ Harvey-like blues-rock of "To Keep You Safe from Harm and Trouble" feature a far more assertive rhythm section than before, and while "Are You in My Blood?" has the same tightly wound forward momentum as many of David & the Citizens' earlier songs, the heavily distorted fuzz guitars are a new twist. The combination of the new rock-ist vibe with David Fridlund's pure pop melodic sense is an uneasy one at times, but Stop the Tape Stop the Tape is the first David & the Citizens' album that doesn't immediately recall a number of other, better bands, and that's a big step in the right direction.